About 50 kilometres into our cycle around Ireland’s Beara Peninsula we stopped by a grotto to Holy Mary. Even before we’d petitioned the mother of God for more thigh strength, a local appeared by our side.

Her name was Therese. She was a nurse and she was concerned about our health. Rest awhile, she said, while explaining her devotion to the Marian shrine, to the area and to her favourite actor, Colin Farrell, who cast her as a nurse in his movie Falling For a Dancer.

You can’t go far in Ireland without encountering a Marian shrine from the ’50s – these are mostly cheesy shrines erected in 1954 when the Vatican declared a Marian year and they persist as monuments to the country’s enduring faith.

You can’t go far without encountering a local with a story to tell, usually of their place in the land and their history with the area. And you can’t go far on the coastal cycleways without feeling the burn.

The Beara Peninsula lies in the south-west and, like nearby Dingle and Sheeps Head peninsulas, it has become popular with cyclists who like to circumnavigate landscapes.

The appeal of cycling around these peninsulas, which look like toes on the map of Ireland, is obvious. The climate is more moderate than northerly parts, the coastal scenery is always over your shoulder and the hills are mostly undulating. But the most obvious appeal is being able to point to a map and say I cycled around that.

We didn’t. By 68 kilometres into the first day’s journey we found a cosy nook in a pub, rang our tour guide and waited for a pick-up. For touring cyclists, the call for the van is an admission of failure but there are many ways to navigate around the toes of Ireland without feeling like losers.

For cyclists who think nothing of doing 100 kilometres on a Sunday morning, the Beara Peninsula is a notch in the belt. A route that stretches from 138 kilometres to 171 kilometres, depending on the start and finish towns, can be accomplished in a day by the fittest of cyclists.

But for those who are more tourists than athletes, the route should be tackled in two to three days, depending on how many pint stops you make. And for those who last rode a bike to school, the landscape can be tasted on two wheels with short forays from their hotels.

Starting in the arty town of Kenmare, the route begins gently. On Irish lanes you pass the homes of past gentries with their gardens of grand firs, buddleia and the honey aromas of late summer. Further on, you pass through mossy forests where the sun dances on treetops but rarely touches ground; then on to fishing villages that fold down to the sea, where the calls of gulls signal the return of fishing boats. Then the landscape gets wilder.

By the end of the peninsula the gorse-covered hills are windswept, grey and tougher on the thighs. Riding against the prevailing winds and into occasional drizzle, the last leg of the peninsula is testing.

Like any tourist ride, enjoyment – and sometimes survival – depends on the stops along the way. This route has a few decent cafes and a lot of pubs where they don’t raise an eyebrow to those who hobble in for a pint at 10am.

And it’s mostly in the pubs that you encounter the locals, especially in the late afternoon when workers, students and knackered tourists huddle over slow-poured stout and fat chips.

The most important stops are, of course, the nightly accommodation. And on these peninsulas they range from family B&Bs where you’re given the kids old bedroom, to Relais & Chateaux such as Sheen Falls Lodge.

In between there are boutique hotels in the bigger towns, a few modern hotels and motel-style accommodation.

Most accommodation places are used to having bags delivered for both cyclists and walkers, who can be spotted emerging from forests with staff and backpacks along the route.

The problem with having your bags sent ahead is that you feel compelled to complete the day’s cycle and, frankly, 85 kilometres on a mountain bike through drizzle and headwinds can prove too much for some.

A better option for cyclists who prefer a scenic ride to an endurance ride is to base yourself in a comfortable hotel – I’d plump for the Relais and Chateaux option – and set out to complete segments of the ride that suit your level of fitness.

Then, when the thighs freeze over or the will grows weak, call your tour company for a pick-up back to the hotel. The next day you can be delivered to where you finished off and proceed on your way around the toes of Ireland.

Although this option isn’t featured in many brochures of cycling companies, it’s an option that many of the smaller ones are happy to offer, given that they have to cover the route with your bags in any case.

This won’t earn you boasting rights on those 100 kilometre Sunday rides back home but it will give you the chance to gaze at the views along the way, to stop at Marian shrines and chat to the locals you meet.

In fact, if you want a role model for your cycle in Ireland, think of those old Irish men who tootle along picturesque country lanes on rickety bikes with a cloth cap on the head and a hello to everyone they meet.